The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things, Portfolio Gallery 1993

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This was an international touring exhibition of thirteen large scale computer manipulated photo works, based on the painting of the same name by the 15th cent. Flemish painter Hieronymous Bosch, the work explores aspects of Scotland’s’ history and culture, incorporating broader themes relating to global exploitation, pollution and morality in the late 20th century. 

Exhibited world-wide including venues in Edinburgh, London, Athens, Istanbul, Munich, Milan, Dundee, Zagreb, Stockholm, Helsinki and Kawasaki, awarded in 1997 the 13th Higashikawa Overseas Photographer Prize, sponsored and financed by Portfolio Gallery, Edinburgh, B+S Visual Technologies, Glasgow, The British Council, and The Scottish Arts Council, works in collection of Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull and City Art Centre Edinburgh. Exhibition catalogue by Tom Normand, University of St. Andrews. A selection of works from this exhibition was, in 1996 included in ‘Photography after Photography’ (Memory and Representation in the Digital Age), an international group exhibition of photographic artworks selected by the Siemens Kulturprogramm in Munich.

The exhibition concentrates on photographic imaging strategies in the computer age, in particular in connection with the themes of body, space, identity, authenticity and memory. The exhibition travelled from Germany to Finland, USA and Australia. G+B Arts International published a full colour catalogue in English and German. Also examples included in the exhibition and publication in 1999 ‘Scotland’s Art’ City Art Centre, Edinburgh. Images discussed and included in a number of publications including in 1994: ‘Revisions’ Ulrich Pohlmann, Sara Stevenson, James Lawson, Nazraeli Press, Munich, and in 1996:‘Scottish Art’ (1st edition) by Duncan Macmillan, Mainstream.

A selection of this work was included as large-scale projections in the production by the Komische Opera Berlin of J.Offenbach’s ‘Orpheus in the Underworld’ 1999.


The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things 1993

Anger 1993

Lust 1993

Pride 1993

Avarice 1993

Sloth 1993

Envy 1993

Gluttony 1993

Death of the Sinner

Last Judgement 1993

Hell 1993

Paradise 1993

The exhibition catalogue is reproduced and can be viewed in PDF form below, with an essay by Dr Tom Normand and published by Portfolio Gallery, Edinburgh 1993.

ISBN 0 9520608 1 7.

7DS-Catalogue-1993

Portfolio Magazine Number 17, Summer 1993, James Lawson interviews Calum Colvin about morality in a post-modern society.

Portfolio-1993